Senior Dominique Hannah and the Lady Flames will host the NCCAA Mid-East Region on Friday and Saturday.
photo by Lee Sports Information
The Lee softball team will be looking to punch its ticket to Botetourt, Va. and the NCCAA National Championship as it hosts the NCCAA Mid-East Region Tournament on Friday and Saturday from Stanley Butler Field.
The Lady Flames (31-17) will enter as the No.
1 seed in the three-team field after finishing fifth in the rugged Gulf South Conference. Fellow conference member Mississippi College (25-20) will come in as the No. 2 seed while NAIA school Kentucky Christian (21-7) rounds out the field.
SPOTLIGHTING THE FIELD
Lee finished the season taking 2-of-3 at Christian Brothers (Memphis) on Apr. 25-26. Over its final 30 games the Lady Flames posted a 21-9 record including a 3-2 mark against NCAA Division II top 10 teams and a 2-1 mark against GSC Tournament Champion Shorter University.
Lee seemed to find its rhythm after sweeping Mississippi College back on Mar. 15-16. The Lady Flames blanked the Choctaws, 7-0 in game one behind a complete game shutout from Leigh Beatenbough and a three-run triple by Dominique Hannah. Lee would score a 6-2 win in game two and pulled out a 3-2 victory in nine innings in the series finale.
Junior-transfer Kaylie Drew leads the team in most offensive categories. The right-handed slugging third baseman is hitting .420 with 15 home runs and 55 RBI. Drew is just three home runs shy of matching Johanna Gomez’s single season school record of 18 homers set back in 2010.
Junior Angie Hughes and Beatenbough saw most of the work in the circle for head coach Emily Russell this season. Hughes enters the region with a 14-7 mark and a 2.51 ERA. The hard-throwing righty has racked up 177 strikeouts in 142.1 innings pitched.
Beatenbough posted quality numbers in her first year for the Lady Flames. The Canon, Ga. native went 12-7 with a team-best 2.38 ERA. She struck out 92 batters and surrendered just 49 free passes in 123.2 innings of work.
The Choctaws enter postseason play after finishing the regular season against No. 1 Valdosta State. The Lady Blazers won two games by scores of 1-0 but Mississippi College did notch an impressive 5-1 win in game two of the series.
Carlie Sargent anchors the pitching staff with a 16-11 record and a 2.24 ERA. The junior displays pinpoint control walking just 23 batters in 153 innings. Shay Mickens jump starts the offense with a .384 average, 61 hits and 32 stolen bases.
The Knights will be looking to pull the upset out of the No. 3 spot. Kentucky Christian swept a doubleheader from Ohio Christian to end the regular season before falling to Cal State San Marcos in the Association of Independent Institutions (A.I.I) Tournament last week.
Cassandra Adkins, Katelyn Miller and Kailey Rigdon represented the Knights on the A.I.I All-Conference Second Team.
TOURNAMENT MATCHUPS
Mississippi College and Kentucky Christian will kick things off on Friday at 12 noon. The winner will matchup with the top-seed Flames at2:30 p.m. The loser of game one and the loser of game two will battle in an elimination game to wrap up day one at 5 p.m.
The championship is slated for Saturday at 2 p.m. The team coming out of the loser’s bracket will have to win twice in order to claim the title. The “if necessary” game would take place at approximately 4:30 p.m.
Admission to the two-day event is free to the public however donations will be taken to help support Rusty Cooke, a Cleveland native and his family, as he battles non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Live stats for all games will be available at sidearmstats.com/leeuniversity/softball.